Fourteen civilians wounded in shelling

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 April 1999, 02:13 GMT]Three civilians were killed and fourteen wounded in Eravur, 16 kilometers north of Batticaloa, by shelling and gunfire following an attack by the Liberation Tigers on a Sri Lankan Police sentry in the early hours of the morning today around 12.40 a.m.

Sellathmby and several others in the neighbourhood who had run into his house for safety were wounded by the shells.

The wounded have been admitted to the Batticaloa hospital.

Sellathamby told TamilNet's Batticaloa correspondent that the Policemen at the Eravur main road sentry had refused to let the wounded be taken through their point to Batticaloa hospital.

He said that the lives of the two women could have been saved if they could have been brought on time to Batticaloa for emergency treatment.

There were 12 persons in his hut when it was hit by the shells from the Eravur Police detachement Sellathamby told TamilNet.

Four members of a family were among the 14 persons wounded in the Eravur shelling and gunfire in Eravur.

The Police said that the LTTE assault was repulsed with no damage to its sentry by the lagoon, near the Fareed playground in division 5 of Eravur, 16 kilometers north of Batticaloa.

Police in Eravur said that the Tigers had come across the lagoon from Pankudaaveli on the coast of the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district which is not under the control of the Sri Lankan security forces.